Monday, June 9, 2014

I've been out of town for a week and came back to see a massive tree limb torn away from one of the maple trees on the Southtown lawn near the subway station. Does anyone know what happened? There is a big black section in the wood at the point where the branch tore away. Is it some kind of illness or interior rot that caused the damage? Lightning?

Rebecca Knell shares picture of the damaged tree

and reports:

Oh dear, poor tree.

Another reader asks:

There is a huge branch of the tree down on the way to the subway. Practically, a tree. I hope nobody got hurt. Is there any info?

RI Day is mostly for the children, with rides and other amusements, which RIOC has funded year after year in the past. This year, I've heard that RIOC has significantly reduced its funding such that the children might not have their rides. Yet you seem to find interest in funding lobbying organizations (RIRA) based upon proposes suffering substantial misrepresentation. Not to mention, even the RIRA election machines (at $5K) seem like an extravagant expense considering that most RIRA positions are uncontested. That $5K could be better spent on the children, which will have a much longer lasting and positive effect.

I guess you *could* get a long-lasting effect by withholding the kids rides: they'd long remember the dysfunctional RIOC operations and misguided RIOC priorities of your term and the resident(!) RIOC Board members. And they'd be talking about it still at their Roosevelt Island reunion 20 years from now: "Hey, remember when RIOC canceled the kids rides but spend money on the RI Royalty?".

Sadly, you and your board need these kind of ongoing external reminders on the right priorities for the community, you and your board don't seem to have that internal compass within you.

Have a heart, reassure the community that you will restore RIOC's funding for Roosevelt Island Day.

BS alert: RIOC is now going to be claiming that they increased their funding this year for RI day. RIOC should show what the budget/contributors were last year, and RIOC should show what the budget/contributors were this year at the point when merchants were asked to make up the shortfall. And RIOC should show what that shortfall was. The fact that it has come to the point where kids' rides/concert-band are in question means that RIOC has handled this incompetently.

To Charlene Indelicato: you were excited about funding Sherie Helstien's Bollywood event (along with various RIRA misrepresentations) all based on some informal meetings, and RIOC burned $30K-ish in a day on the Cherry Blossom Festival, but you're skimping on the KIDS for Roosevelt Island Day? Really, the wrong priorities in RIOC ... you guys (and RIOC Board) can't seem to get your priorities right.

Anyway, expect some backpedaling BS that Everything Is Fine Now The Funding Is In Place. Like lots of this (just like how Rick pointed out the blown garbage around the AVAC facility), being able to report these kinds of things publicly is how things get fixed.

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Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.

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